


Banter & Canter

by sambharsobs



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Communication, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Pre-Time Skip, marianne has one (1) braincell and shes trying her best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26620366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sambharsobs/pseuds/sambharsobs
Summary: Hilda notices Marianne acting strangely, but doesn't give it too much thought. Then Marianne explains why, and really, what did she expect?
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund/Hilda Valentine Goneril
Comments: 8
Kudos: 78





	Banter & Canter

Hilda feels a cold prickle of dread slip down her neck, which means only one thing: Seteth is watching her.

For added effect, Hilda sighs loudly as she hefts a pile of books onto the table. She’s on library duty, as was assigned to her earlier this week, and oh, would you look at that, she's sweating. Gross, but it helps show how _hardworking_ she is.

You see, Hilda was supposed to clean the cathedral on her last free day, and before that she was supposed to help the dining staff with lunch, and before that she—

Well. No point crying over spilt milk, right? There’s no way the terrifyingly stern man is going to march up to her in the middle of reading hour, when the students are so busy studying, and call her out on her actions. Or, well, lack of actions. Hilda’s in the clear as long as she pretends she’s very, _very_ busy.

Unfortunately, that’s when Marianne stumbles on air and falls onto the floor.

“Oh, no! Mari!” she gasps, rushing to the taller girl, who is lying on the ground surrounded by books.

“O-Ouch,” she whimpers.

Hilda’s about to search for bruises or twists when she hears, “Miss von Edmund. Are you alright? Can you stand?”

Hilda’s eyes dart to Seteth, who is looking at Marianne with concern.

Be cool, Hilda, be cool!

Marianne’s cute face is pink, and she says, “I’m not sure.”

“Here, let me help you,” she says, and helps Marianne sit up. Her eyes dart to Seteth again, like some sort of cornered animal. His lips are pursed and his gaze is steely, so she really tries to sell it with, “Don’t worry, Mari. Your good buddy Hilda is here to help.”

Mari’s drops her sweet doe eyes, and she says, “I’m s-so sorry for causing a m-mess, I-I’m just so useless—”

Hilda frowns, and from the corner of her eye, she sees Seteth’s eyebrows shoot up.

“No, you’re not,” says Hilda as gently as she can. “These things happen, Mari, don’t worry about it.”

“B-But I—”

“No buts! Like I said, your good friend Hilda is here to help you out.” Hilda clears her throat loudly, eyes darting to Seteth. “Like I help everyone out, especially when I’m assigned to help.”

“Of course,” he says drily. “The epitome of ethics.”

Hilda laughs, nervous and high-pitched. Goddess, this guy is really scary. She should change the subject, quick, before she gets into trouble—

But then Marianne reaches her hand out and runs her finger through Hilda’s braids.

“There, there, girl. I’ve got you.”

Hilda blinks.

_What the fuck._

“You don’t have to be scared,” she coos.

Seteth blinks.

Marianne is smiling through the bizarreness of the situation, still petting her.

The sensation is actually really relaxing.

Seteth clears his throat.

“Miss von Edmund, can you stand?”

“O-Oh,” says Marianne, and then gingerly tests out her feet. “Y-Yes.”

“Then I suggest that you do, and that you both—” oof, that one’s directly at Hilda, “—get back to work. You’ve caused a ruckus and are disturbing the students.”

Her classmates look just as confused as Hilda. Marianne, on the other hand, shoots her a small smile and gets to picking up the books on the floor. Hilda watches her, mouth agape. What was that about?

Seteth clears his throat pointedly, and Hilda jumps to help her.

-

Hilda's a woman of a few talents.

There's no shame in admitting it, because that means less work and more Hilda Time. The idea sounds lovely right now - lying on the cool sheets of her bedroom while she makes a new piece of jewelry. Hilda would be free to spend the evening worrying about nothing but the drying paint on her nails.

Instead, Hilda's sweating in the courtyard, dirt under her nails from the weeds, and her uniform is a mess.

She sits on her haunches and glares at the grass. Maybe Lysithea would know a spell that doesn't make it grow. Else, she'll ask Annette to set fire to it -- by accident or by purpose depends wholly on the clumsy redhead.

Of course, the plus is that she's with Marianne, but the taller girl is on the other end of the yard, studiously crouched on the ground. Hilda's tired of working hard, and so she decides to walk over to Marianne and talk to her a little.

"Marianne!" sings Hilda, peering down at her. "How's it going?"

"I-It's going well," she says softly, not looking up.

"Oh, then let's take a break, shall we? Nobody's going to be upset if we do!"

Marianne nods to the dirt, and then rises. Her eyes are always downcast, and she's so somber all the time, but Hilda beams at her nevertheless.

Her smile quickly drops when she sees what's at Marianne's feet, however.

Hilda takes a long minute to gather herself.

"Marianne," she says as sweetly as she can, "why are there vegetables at your feet?"

"Huh? A-Are those...vegetables?"

Hilda's eyebrow twitches. "Yes. Quite rare ones, in fact."

"O-Oh dear," breathes Marianne. "I-Im so sorry, I-I didn't know th-they were--"

"No! Don't apologise!" Hilda's had enough of Marianne saying sorry. It's hot, she's sweating, and they need to go over Marianne's entire section because for some reason, Lady Rhea and Seteth think growing vegetables in the courtyard is a good idea.

Hilda wishes Raphael was here. She could rope him into doing this in a heartbeat, and she and Marianne could be sitting indoors and not worrying about weirdly important carrots. Frustrated, Hilda stomps her foot into the stupid grass.

"H-Hilda?"

"Yeah?" she snaps.

"A-Are you upset at me?"

"What? Oh, no, Marianne. This isn't your fault, really."

Her pretty brown eyes flicker to her foot, and then she's back to looking at the floor.

"It's just this stupid assignment," sighs Hilda. "I wanted to spend the evening making jewelry or taking tea, but nooo, we're stuck in the sun. Ugh, I hate it!"

Marianne looks at her face for a fleeting second and then looks away.

Hilda squeals, angrily. "I don't know why the professor keeps making me do these weeding and rubble assignments! They know I hate it! They know I'm bad at it!"

"U-Um."

"I know why," gasps Hilda, a sudden realisation dawning upon her. "This is because I told them they're too quiet for a professor. This is payback."

"U-Uh-"

"But I was just giving constructive criticism! That wasn't rude, I was just giving them my opinion. Students always walk over a quiet teacher!"

"H-Hilda!"

Hilda clamps her mouth shut at Marianne's outburst. Marianne's mouth moves wordlessly for several seconds.

"...yes?"

"H-Here," she says, and holds out the carrot.

Hilda blinks.

"Marianne," she says as sweetly as she can. "Why are you giving me a carrot?"

"B-Because...you were upset. D-Don't be upset, p-please."

"And this vegetable is supposed to make me feel better."

"...y-yes."

Hilda counts to five slowly, and then takes the carrot.

"There, yeah! Not upset anymore, see? Hilda's smiling!"

Marianne looks up again, and there's a small smile on her face. It warms Hilda up from the inside.

"Now, come on, Marianne! Let's get this stupid weeding out of the way so that we can go relax."

"R-Right!"

When Marianne turns, Hilda flings the carrot to the other end of the courtyard, and keeps an eye out for more unwanted greens.

-

Marianne is sitting on the edge of her bed, anxiously toying with a cup of tea, while Hilda drapes herself across the bed on her stomach, fiddling with some jewelry.

Now _this_ , Hilda can get behind. There's no sweating, no responsibilities, no Seteth. This is the R&R she sorely deserves, especially after the terrible weeks she's had. Ugh, she should probably take tomorrow off too, as a treat.

"Done!"

With a triumphant grin, she dangles the finished brooch over her head. Marianne turns to her, and Hilda let's her hold the brooch and examine it closely.

"What do you think?" asks Hilda.

"I-It's beautiful, Hilda."

That's the best she's going to get from Marianne, so Hilda tosses a pigtail behind her shoulder and says, "Aww, thanks Mari!"

Marianne watches the flick of her hair, and a small, proud smile crosses her face.

"You're r-really good at this. Y-You should feel p-proud of yourself."

Hilda feels a blush creep up her neck. "Why, thank you. Hoo, is it suddenly hot in here?"

"I-I, um." Marianne fiddles nervously with the brooch in her lap. "I th-think you're a good person, a-and...and you're v-very kind."

Marianne is really going in for the emotions, huh? Hilda is happy that she is, but the girl is clearly struggling, so she says, "You're very kind too, Mari. I know," she says, before Marianne can go back on her 'I don't deserve good things' triads, "I know it's hard for you to accept, but that just means I'll have to remind you more, hm?"

Marianne chokes out an adorably awkward laugh.

"And see? You're a lot more open with me now, compared to before. So be proud of yourself a little, too!"

"A-Ah," says Marianne, suddenly shy. "I s-suppose…"

That's enough for Hilda, so she slumps back into the bed with a sigh, and says, "What brought it on, by the way?"

When Marianne shuffles for too long for Hilda's comfort, she props herself on an elbow and squints at her. Marianne is steadily avoiding eye-contact, and that's bad news.

"Marianne," says Hilda, slowly.

She keeps quiet.

"What did you do?"

"N-Nothing bad!"

"I'm not upset!" says Hilda, sitting up. "Promise."

"I, I...um…"

Hilda waits, balanced precariously on an elbow.

"I...I'm not good at talking to people, like you. You're so c-confident. But I only feel that way around animals. So..."

Oh, this is either going to be good, or really, really bad.

"I spoke to the Professor, and they said...they said that I should just pretend the person I'm talking to is a horse."

The soothing petting, the carrots, the praise...it's starting to be horrifyingly clear.

"So," tries Hilda, and her voice fails.

"I just...I just wanted to talk to you better… I'm sorry."

"No!" Hilda's voice cracks from the high pitch. "No, Marianne, it's no problem at all."

It's just like how you're supposed to think of everybody naked when you're going on stage, Hilda tells herself. It's just a coping mechanism, but just...weirder.

Oh Goddess, does this mean that Hilda looks like a horse?

But then again, knowing Marianne, it's probably a compliment. Hilda choses to think so, at least, because the alternative is too much to bear.

"It's really sweet of you to do that," she says. "I know how hard it is for you to talk to people, so I'm really happy that you're trying. Thank you."

Marianne meets her eyes, and when she finds no anger, another small smile takes over her features.

"Just don't expect me to get along with Dorte, okay?" jokes Hilda.

A _horse_ , really?

"Okay," whispers Marianne. "Shall I braid your hair?"

"Oh, _no_."

Hilda knows what's she's upto now, and she's seen the locks on the stables' mares.

"How about I do yours, Marianne?"

"Oh, sure…"

Hilda's not going to be able to step into the stables ever again, is she?

**Author's Note:**

> based on a question mari has during tutoring pre-ts....this is so stupid but it got stuck in my head
> 
> thank u [katie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marble_Ocean) for proofreading and giving me company while writing,
> 
> [My Twitter!](https://twitter.com/sadsambharsobs)


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